Ilias Chair Shines in QPR's Comeback Victory at Fratton Park
Ilias Chair walked back into Fratton Park like he had never been away and ripped the place up.
Two goals, one assist, and a reminder to the Championship of exactly what QPR missed when their playmaker spent four months on the sidelines last season. Rangers, so often timid on this ground, left with only their second win here in three decades and did it by cutting Portsmouth open on the break.
Devlin ignites Fratton Park
Portsmouth came into their third season back in the Championship talking about progress and played the opening stages like a side that believed it. They pressed high, moved the ball quickly and had QPR wobbling.
Conor Shaughnessy headed over early. Debutant Luke Brooke-Smith forced a save. The noise grew.
On 15 minutes it exploded.
A QPR clearance from a free-kick was half-hearted and fell to Ebou Adams, who calmly rolled the ball into the path of Terry Devlin, lurking in space more than 30 yards out. Devlin stepped onto it and unleashed a swerving right-footed strike that flew away from his Northern Ireland team-mate Pierce Charles and into the net. A fantastic hit. Fully deserved.
At that point, Portsmouth looked in control. They had territory, they had rhythm, and they had the lead.
Then they were picked apart.
Chair takes control
QPR were set up to sit deep and spring. For half an hour, it looked like a risky plan. One lapse from Portsmouth turned it into a perfect one.
On 33 minutes, Harvey Vale lifted a clever, delicate ball into the danger area. Portsmouth’s back line froze. Goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid stayed put. Chair did neither. He ghosted in and prodded home from close range while the entire home defence stood rooted. One chance, one goal. The mood changed.
Julien Stephan’s side smelled uncertainty and pounced again before the break. On 40 minutes, Chair drove at the retreating defence and slipped in Koki Saito. The Japan international’s shot took a deflection off Devlin and wrong-footed Schmid. From nowhere, QPR led.
Three shots on target in the first half. Three goals. Clinical barely covers it.
The counter-attack blueprint kept paying out. Deep into first-half stoppage time, Amadou Mbengue surged down the right, looked up and picked out Chair, completely unmarked. The 28-year-old guided his finish into the corner for his second of the afternoon. Portsmouth’s back line, so assured early on, had been carved open again.
From 1-0 up and cruising to 3-1 down at the whistle. Fratton Park, stunned.
Portsmouth waste their lifeline
John Mousinho’s side still had time and chances to drag themselves back. They just never found the composure to take them.
Shaughnessy, who had threatened in the opening minutes, squandered a free header, nodding wide when he had to hit the target. Substitute Abu Kamara was gifted an opening when Charles sliced a clearance straight to him, only to reply with a tame effort that the QPR goalkeeper gathered easily.
The pattern kept repeating. Charles denied Marko Milovanovic. Rocco Shein worked a shooting chance but failed to make it count. The ball flashed across the box, through bodies, and always seemed to fall just out of reach or onto the wrong boot.
Josh Murphy, back from groin surgery, stepped off the bench and at least injected some direct running. He drove one effort across goal that had Charles scrambling, but it flew past the far post and with it went Portsmouth’s last real hope of a comeback.
QPR, by then, were exactly where they wanted to be: compact, organised, and happy to let the clock tick while their hosts chased shadows.
Chair left the pitch with the game, and maybe QPR’s season, feeling very different. After last year’s collapse without him, this was a loud, sharp statement: with their creator fit and firing, are Rangers finally ready to stop looking over their shoulders and start aiming up the table?
